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Chiefs whiff on chance to improve at QB
Read more here:
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/03/20...#storylink=cpy
The question is simple, and I am asking it directly: Do the Chiefs have a better quarterback situation now than when last season ended?
In other words, is Matt Cassel with Brady Quinn better than Cassel with Kyle Orton? Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli is trying to answer the question, and for that he gets credit.
For the answer itself, though, you can be the judge:
“I think we have a very good quarterback situation now,” he says. “I haven’t looked at it through that prism. I think we have a very good and very competitive quarterback situation. I really do. And it is what it is. You know what I mean? That’s the situation we have. And I’m very comfortable with it.”
Pioli promises he’s good with this, but it’s hard to imagine many Chiefs fans feeling the same way. Peyton Manning is in Denver now, without taking the time to even visit Kansas City — even after talking with Pioli and hearing owner Clark Hunt take the Chiefs’ wooing national.
Instead, the Chiefs have a clearly inferior quarterback situation after an offseason publicly devoted to improving the quarterback situation. Orton beat out Quinn in Denver last year, is the only one of the two with any NFL success … and left to be the backup in Dallas.
Pioli called Orton’s contract (essentially a three-year contract worth $10.5 million) “very, very generous,” but when he’s done mocking the deal he’ll have to realize that money the Chiefs have and will soon be required to spend could’ve been used to back up his own public promises.
An offseason that began with Pioli and coach Romeo Crennel talking about better quarterback competition, and that spiked with owner Hunt telling the world his team wanted Manning, is now winding down with a weaker quarterback situation than what the Chiefs ended last season with. Let that sink in.
Pioli did a lot of good things this offseason, and he might do more before next month’s draft. The Chiefs signed a power running back (Peyton Hillis) to complement Jamaal Charles. They signed a legitimate No. 2 cornerback (Stanford Routt) when the price for Brandon Carr went too high. They added a solid tight end (Kevin Boss) as insurance for Tony Moeaki.
Most important, they signed the free-agent market’s best right tackle (Eric Winston) to fill the first-string’s biggest hole.
It’s just that on what should have been the Chiefs’ most important offseason priority — the only thing that could’ve drastically improved the franchise — Pioli whiffed.
That’s it.
Just whiffed.
And worse: He apparently doesn’t even know why Manning wouldn’t consider the Chiefs.
“He never explained to me nor did I ask,” Pioli said. “ … I don’t think it was my place to do that.”
Now, Pioli even addressing this is progress. A year ago, it would’ve been hard to imagine him talking about a player who signed somewhere else. But the Chiefs have made a concerted effort to speak more openly to fans, so Pioli found himself talking about his pursuit of Manning.
But what came in the answers can be no consolation to Chiefs fans.
The Chiefs — considering the team’s cap space, strong roster and Hunt’s words — were among Manning’s biggest snubs. Among other teams that couldn’t get a face-to-face with Manning, Washington traded for the opportunity to draft Robert Griffin III and the Seahawks signed Matt Flynn to a surprisingly reasonable contract.
Pioli’s conference call with reporters on Tuesday was cut short after about 17 minutes by some technical glitches, and he didn’t respond to follow-up questions sent through the team’s communications department about whether he knew whether Manning’s snub was fueled by anything specific about the Chiefs.
That means many will speculate that well-known drama within the organization made Manning unwilling to even visit (even as another Chiefs source stressed this wasn’t the case).
That’s not entirely fair. Manning’s snub of the Chiefs isn’t necessarily a middle finger at Hunt or Pioli any more than his refusal to meet with the Seahawks or Jets is a middle finger to those organizations.
If it was only about the best chance of winning right away, the Chiefs are a better choice than the Broncos. But if it was only about the best chance of winning right away, the 49ers, a team he also snubbed, are a better choice than the Chiefs.
Manning held his introductory news conference in Denver on Tuesday and spoke mostly in generalities about choosing the Broncos.
He emphasized his comfort with owner Pat Bowlen and VP of football operations John Elway — which could be interpreted that the Chiefs lacked the right leadership.
But he also said “this is a now situation” and Elway added “there is no plan B” — which can only be heard as the antithesis of Pioli’s Chiefs.
Manning’s truest and unfiltered thoughts about the teams he didn’t choose probably won’t ever go public. That’s just not his style, and Pioli says he won’t spend time worrying over things he can’t control, that his job is to manage the things he can control.
But Pioli’s well-earned reputation of being meticulous and researching every possibility makes it hard to believe he’s content taking an ambiguous thanks-but-no-thanks from the one player who could’ve instantly made this franchise a serious Super Bowl threat.
Pioli did enough other good things to take some of the sting from not upgrading at quarterback, but if he didn’t find out why Manning skipped Kansas City, then how can he know whether it was something he could control?
And if he really doesn’t have the answer, how can Chiefs fans know everything possible is being done to win a championship?
Read more here:
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/03/20...#storylink=cpy